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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: a show that believes there's no time like the present

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Speaker 1: to learn about the past. I'm Gabe Lousier, and in

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Speaker 1: this episode, we're taking a trip back to the early

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Speaker 1: days of the personal computer, a time when hardly anyone

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Speaker 1: knew how to use one, but just about everyone was

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Speaker 1: itching to try. The day was August three, seven, electronics

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Speaker 1: retailer Radio Shack unveiled the t R S eight, one

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Speaker 1: of the first personal computers marketed to the average consumer.

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Speaker 1: This early all in one PC was the result of

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Speaker 1: a joint effort between Radio Shack and its parent company,

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Speaker 1: the Tandy Corporation. The computer's name t R S A

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Speaker 1: D was a nod to that lineage, with the T

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Speaker 1: standing for Tandy and the R S for Radio Shack.

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Speaker 1: As for the E D, that was a reference to

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Speaker 1: the Machines micro processor, the mighty Zilog Z E D.

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Speaker 1: Radio Shack showed off its new cutting edge product at

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Speaker 1: a press conference at the Warwick Hotel in New York City.

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Speaker 1: Beginning the following month, customers would be able to purchase

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Speaker 1: the base model for four hundred dollars, or they could

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Speaker 1: spring for the Deluxe package, which included a twelve inch

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Speaker 1: monitor and cassette recorder, for six hundred dollars. That's the

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Speaker 1: equivalent of just under three grand today. Despite that steep

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Speaker 1: asking price, most people opted for the fancier model, which

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Speaker 1: makes sense since it was the only one that came

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Speaker 1: with a screen. It was also the only way to

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Speaker 1: get a cassette tape containing such killer apps as Blackjack

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Speaker 1: and Backgammon. No matter which option a customer chose, the

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Speaker 1: t R S E D didn't come with a hard

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Speaker 1: drive and only had four kilobytes of RAM. For reference,

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Speaker 1: an iPhone thirteen comes with either four or six gigabytes

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Speaker 1: of RAM. It's specs may not be impressive today, but

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Speaker 1: in the early days of the micro computer industry, the

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Speaker 1: t R S eight was a big deal. It wound

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Speaker 1: up making a ton of money for Radio Shack, and

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Speaker 1: the company would go on to introduce more than a

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Speaker 1: dozen different models at the device over the next six years.

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Speaker 1: Designing and marketing a personal computer was outside the comfort

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Speaker 1: zone of the Tandy Corporation, which had actually started as

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Speaker 1: a leather goods company. However, Radio Shack executive Don French

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Speaker 1: was convinced that expanding into the PC market would be

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Speaker 1: a smart move for the company. He thought so not

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Speaker 1: only because he was a computer hobby himself, but because

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Speaker 1: he knew how badly radio Shack needed a hot new product.

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Speaker 1: One of the store's biggest sellers of the last few

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Speaker 1: years had been CB radios, but in seven sales had

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Speaker 1: begun to lose steam. French believed that a consumer friendly

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Speaker 1: PC could make up for that lost revenue, but Tandy

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Speaker 1: executives weren't so sure. They questioned whether something is bulky

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Speaker 1: and complex as a personal computer could sell well at

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Speaker 1: a radio Shack, especially since most of their products were

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Speaker 1: far cheaper and easier to use. Despite these reservations, Tandy

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Speaker 1: approved the project, and development on the TRS a D

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Speaker 1: officially began. Don French provided some initial concepts for the machine,

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Speaker 1: but most of the actual design work was done by

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Speaker 1: Steve Lininger, an electrical engineer and computer programmer. At first,

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Speaker 1: the company had wanted to play it safe by just

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Speaker 1: releasing a computer hobbyist kit essential, a do it yourself

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Speaker 1: package of circuit boards and other components that could be

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Speaker 1: assembled into a rudimentary computer. It was still an open

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Speaker 1: question whether the average American consumer would even be interested

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Speaker 1: in a personal computer. Selling the device as a kit

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Speaker 1: would allow the company to tap into a more established

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Speaker 1: market those who already had the technical expertise and interest

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Speaker 1: in building their own computer. It was Steve Lininger who

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Speaker 1: convinced the company to set it sites a little higher.

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Speaker 1: He argued that there weren't many pre builts all in

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Speaker 1: one PCs out there, so if Radio Shack invested in

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Speaker 1: a product like that, they'd basically have the market all

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Speaker 1: to themselves. Lininger got approval for this more ambitious approach,

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Speaker 1: and the fruit of his labor hit store shelves in

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Speaker 1: September of nineteen seventy seven. Although initially projected to sell

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Speaker 1: no more than a thousand units in its first month,

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Speaker 1: the TRS e d wound up selling ten times that amount.

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Speaker 1: The hefty price tag wasn't as much of a deterrent

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Speaker 1: to Radio Shack customers as had been expected, and the

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Speaker 1: country's growing curiosity about this new state of the art

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Speaker 1: technology helped drive sales just as Don French had predicted.

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Speaker 1: In fact, within a year of the TRS eighties launch,

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Speaker 1: more than a hundred thousand units had been sold, accounting

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Speaker 1: for fifty percent of all PC sales in nine seventy eight.

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Speaker 1: As for the other fifty percent of that market share,

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Speaker 1: most of it came from the TRS eighties two main competitors,

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Speaker 1: the Apple two and the Commodore PET two thousand one.

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Speaker 1: Both of those models also came fully assembled and ready

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Speaker 1: to use out of the box, but in terms of

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Speaker 1: computing power, they outperformed the t R S eight on

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Speaker 1: almost every level. Of course, Radio Shack had something going

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Speaker 1: for it that the other two brands didn't. Retail space

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Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy seven, Radio Shack had more and five

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Speaker 1: thousand locations across the United States, many of which were

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Speaker 1: conveniently located inside shopping malls. That made the t R

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Speaker 1: S e ight the natural choice for many consumers, as

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Speaker 1: it was the computer sold at a store they already frequented.

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Speaker 1: It's worth noting, though, that among geeks of the era,

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Speaker 1: the TRS e ight wasn't held in high regard. It's

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Speaker 1: black and white display and chunky, plastic gray case simply

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Speaker 1: couldn't compete with the high end feel of the Apple too,

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Speaker 1: with its color graphics and curvy beige case. Radio Shacks

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Speaker 1: PC was a machine for the masses, but many computer

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Speaker 1: connoisseurs wouldn't be caught dead with it. In fact, they

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Speaker 1: even had a not so loving nickname for the t

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Speaker 1: R S A D. They called it the Trash e D.

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Speaker 1: How cruel still trash or not, The tr S E

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Speaker 1: D was America's computer of choice for the first few

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Speaker 1: years of the industry. By one that in stry was

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Speaker 1: worth about a billion dollars, and while Apple and IBM

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Speaker 1: claimed a big slice of that pie, Tandy slice was

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Speaker 1: even bigger. That year, Time magazine reported on the company's success,

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Speaker 1: writing quote, a newer version of the t R S

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Speaker 1: A D has become the largest selling computer of all time,

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Speaker 1: and Tandy now commands of the small computer market. However,

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Speaker 1: as you've probably guessed, those good times didn't last. The

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Speaker 1: tech market proved a little too fast paced for Tandy

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Speaker 1: to keep up with, and the competitors that had kept

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Speaker 1: at bay for several years eventually claimed its share of

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Speaker 1: the market. It's now forty years later and Tandy, the

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Speaker 1: t R S A D and Radio Shack are all

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Speaker 1: things of the past. The effect they had on human

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Speaker 1: society is still with us, though. After all, the t

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Speaker 1: R S A D was the brand that helped make

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Speaker 1: computing approachable and intuitive for the averag each person. In

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Speaker 1: that sense, it helped pave the way for the world

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Speaker 1: we live in today, where almost everyone now has a

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Speaker 1: personal computer in the palm of their hand. So while

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Speaker 1: computer geeks may have dismissed it as trash back in

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Speaker 1: the day, in terms of cultural impact, it was a

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Speaker 1: real treasure. I'm Gay Bluesier and hopefully you now know

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Speaker 1: a little more about history today than you did yesterday.

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Speaker 1: You can learn even more about history by following us

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Speaker 1: on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at t d i HC Show.

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Speaker 1: You can also rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: or you can send your feedback directly to me at

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Speaker 1: this Day at I heart media dot com. Thanks to

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Speaker 1: Chandler Mays for producing the show, and thank you for listening.

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Speaker 1: I'll see you back here again tomorrow for another day

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Speaker 1: in History class